Qualtrics Best Practices

Table of Contents

Transfer of Surveys

  • Surveys and their data can be transferred to a coworker or supervisor when transferring offices, prior to leaving Texas A&M (including graduating).
  • Per The Responsible Stewardship of Research Data policy, survey data cannot be transferred outside Texas A&M University.

Qualtrics Usage and Pricing

Security Settings 

Fake, automated survey responses CAN SLIP through and actively CORRUPT your results, IF YOU AREN'T CAREFUL. Bots can seriously undermine your research and data integrity, making your findings unreliable. To protect the accuracy of your surveys, take action now:

  • General Settings

    • ExpertReview
      • It is recommended that this setting be enabled. Qualtrics will review your survey and provide recommendations for improvements.
      • Per Qualtrics, ExpertReview helps researchers ensure their surveys collect high-quality data. ExpertReview has 3 major functions:
        • Measuring the data quality of the survey elements (questions, logic, quotas, etc.).
        • Recommending how users should improve those elements and providing documentation for research-based explanations on these recommendations.
        • Predicting the quality of the data that will be collected.

  • Responses Settings

    • It is highly recommended that the Response Settings are reviewed, specifically:
      • Automatic survey closure
        • This will automatically close surveys once the Expiration Date is reached.
        • Incomplete responses can still be gathered.
      • Survey availability
        • Enable the option “Set specific start and expiration date”
        • Define these times by editing survey availability.
        • These settings will help ensure the survey is closed in a timely manner and therefore not left open for bots to submit a flood of responses.

  • Security Settings

    • Survey Access
      • Determine if the survey will be available to anyone or if it is an invitation only survey.
      • Per Qualtrics:
        • Available to anyone: By default, respondents can take your survey either using the anonymous link or an individual link.
        • Invitation only: Only respondents sent a personal link or invited over email (with the default individual link) can access the survey. No one can enter the survey using the anonymous link or the multiple completes link
          • If your survey will be hosted on a webpage, it is not advisable to enable this setting; however, if you are emailing users with a link, this would be a good setting to utilize.
    • In Survey: Prevent multiple submissions
      • Determine if you will allow one person to submit multiple answers. If it is not needed for many answers from one person, enable this setting.
      • If you are using the survey to obtain information throughout the year from the same population, it may not be a good setting to enable.
    • Bot detection
      • It is recommended that this setting be enabled.
      • Per Qualtrics, Bot detection allows you to track which responses are likely bots by adding a field to each response called Q_RecaptchaScore. Every response is rated on the probability that the respondent was a bot, which you can then use to filter out data or build reports.
      • Please keep in mind that this needs to be enabled before collecting data.
      • It is also recommended to enable this step once you are done setting up your survey.
    • Security Scan Monitor
      • Prevent security scanners from accidentally starting surveys when they test your link
      • It is recommended that this setting be enabled.
    • Prevent Indexing
      • Block search engines from including your survey in their search results.
      • It is recommended that this setting be enabled to decrease the likelihood of bots and populations external to the study population accessing and responding to the survey.

Qualtrics Accessibility

  • If your surveys are under IRB’s, please provide directions regarding who responders who may need assistance can reach out to for support.
  • If your surveys are not under IRB’s and responders need assistance, please direct them to qualtrics@tamu.edu and we will work to coordinate assistance.

Survey Approval Process

  • All surveys intended for faculty, staff and/or students require review and approval from the Strategy and Business Services prior to distribution unless an exception is met. Details regarding these specific exceptions, the Survey Approval Process, and the survey approval request form can be found on the Texas A&M University Strategy and Business Services website.
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